Islamic Circle of North America

The Islam­ic Cir­cle of North Amer­i­ca (ICNA) is a North Amer­i­can Islam­ic grass­roots umbrel­la orga­ni­za­tion found­ed in 1968. Its stat­ed mis­sion is to pro­mote Islam through edu­ca­tion, out­reach, and com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice, with pro­grams such as the “Why­Is­lam” ini­tia­tive and its youth wing, Young Mus­lims. ICNA has long been regard­ed as one of the most con­ser­v­a­tive nation­al Mus­lim orga­ni­za­tions in the U.S., shaped by the Islamist thought of Abul A’la Maudu­di and Hasan al-Ban­na. Ana­lysts have argued that ICNA plays a role in the U.S. Mus­lim Broth­er­hood net­work, point­ing to its ide­o­log­i­cal lin­eage, over­lap­ping lead­er­ship cir­cles, and par­tic­i­pa­tion in umbrel­la groups such as the U.S. Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions. The Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Dai­ly Watch (GMBDW) has doc­u­ment­ed ICNA’s his­to­ry of coop­er­a­tion with groups tied to the Broth­er­hood and its repeat­ed pub­lic align­ment with Broth­er­hood caus­es inter­na­tion­al­ly. While ICNA denies for­mal orga­ni­za­tion­al ties to the Broth­er­hood, the evi­dence of ide­o­log­i­cal and insti­tu­tion­al con­nec­tions has placed it firm­ly with­in the broad­er Broth­er­hood-aligned land­scape in the Unit­ed States.

Sources:
Islam­ic Cir­cle of North Amer­i­ca – offi­cial site
Islam­ic Cir­cle of North Amer­i­ca – Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Dai­ly Watch
Influ­ence­Watch – ICNA profile
The Mus­lim-Amer­i­can Mud­dle – Brookings